27 October 2014 | Durable 2: Glazing Health & Safety
The dangers from retail glazing
Most retailers wait with glee for the forthcoming shopping bananza of Christmas and the January sales. But it is also a time when shops become vulnerable − not only to the threat of shoplifting but also from injuries, with their potential injury claims, that come with increased footfall.
One area to be considered is retail glazing. By law retail glazing has to be made of safety glass, usually laminated − but there have been plenty of incidents that illustrate that even the best materials do not remove the risk of a serious incident. Laminated glass may be extremely tough but when it breaks dangerous shards are inevitably created.
Probably the most memorable incident was when a man and women fell through a large retail window in Regent Street, London in 2009. The man was left with his legs straddling shards of broken glass before the remaining shards fell from the top and lacerated vital organs killing him at the scene. The women escaped with multiple injuries and survived.
In Edinburgh in 2014 an elderly lady fell through a shop window and the glass pierced her throat. Even major retailers with excellent safety track records are not immune as Marks & Spencers found out when four year old Adam Ballard pulled a mirror on to himself sustaining injuries that required plastic surgery.
Glass incidents remind all retailers that glass is a safety risk. Shop owners are mitigated by having appropriate safety glass installed but as events show even laminated glass can be vulnerable.
Durable Limited has been advising and helping retailers for decades on the risk from glazing. They can recognise installed glass and advise on meeting required safety standards. To begin with why not ask them for their simple printed guide to meeting Regulation 14 of the Health Safety & Welfare Regulations? For retail glazing in particularly vulnerable situations the application of safety window film, which effectively holds broken glass together, is a simple way of adding a reassuring safety dimension.